Andy Murray of Britain dethroned defending champion Rafael Nadal of Spain 2-1 to clinch the men's singles title of the Japan Open tennis championship here on Sunday.

Without losing a set all the way to the final, the world second-ranking Nadal came into the game with a 6-3 win of the first set. But the Spanish failed to keep his momentum, losing two straight sets to Murray by 2-6 and 0-6.

"I played some great tennis especially in the third set," the No.2 seeded Murray said. "There were a lot of close games towards the end of the first set and the beginning of the second, I managed to get a momentum and didn't give him many chances after that."

Before the match, Nadal has beaten Murray five times in a row. With the fresh win, Murray has won 21 of his 22 matches since mid-August, with the lone loss to Nadal in the U.S. Open semi-finals.

Murray has set his goal to take Roger Federer's No.3 ranking this autumn. "I am going to keep on trying to win, trying to improve... and trying to get there at the end of the year..."

The two will both fly to Shanghai to play the Masters next week.

"I played well the last few months - in Cincinnati and U.S. Open so if I can carry on that to Shanghai..." said Murray, while Nadal said he had nothing to do with the tight schedule but to keep competing.